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Reposted by Mathew Abbott

The Saturday Paper @thesaturdaypaper.com.au · 11h

“I can’t imagine any kind of corporate board or any other decision-making body where that kind of behaviour would be acceptable.”

Tim Moore on the mounting stories of poor governance on Australia’s university councils. satpa.pe/Hy9vWQQ

Stacked boards driving ‘rotten’ university sector

satpa.pe

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Brooklyn Institute @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social · 1d

Faculty Writing: Ajay Singh Chaudhary, "Isfahan Tableaux" for Late Light | An early and yet all too timely preview from issue 2, written in Spring 2024, on Orientalism, imperialism, aesthetics, and American & Israeli aggression against Iran | buff.ly/WuvOpR1

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · 1d

“This is not balance, unless we accept a world where truth is balanced by lies.”

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 1d

New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...

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Dr. Émile P. Torres @xriskology.bsky.social · 7d

New article!! I have some incredibly exciting news to announce: I'll be writing a book next year for Verso about the TESCREAL ideologies, Silicon Valley pro-extinctionism, eugenics in the tech world, and the AGI race. More details are included here: www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-right-...

The Right Time for a Realtime Roundup!

Here are the fun topics we covered over the past two months!

www.realtimetechpocalypse.com

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · 2d

a wonderful book!

The Royal Institute of Philosophy @triphilosophy.bsky.social · 5d

"Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World" by @petergs.bsky.social (published by William Collins) has been shortlisted for the 2025 Nayef Al-Rodhan International Prize in Transdisciplinary Philosophy.

Learn more: royalinstitutephilosophy.org/news/shortli...

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Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.bsky.social · 3d

"50 % of profits went to the wealthiest 1 % of individuals, predominantly through direct shareholdings and private company ownership. In contrast the bottom 50 % only received 1 %."

It was a cost-of-living crisis only for the many.

#Inequality

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Best of times, worst of times: record fossil-fuel profits, inflation and inequality

The 2022 oil and gas crisis resulted in record fossil-fuel profits globally that rehabilitated the oil and gas industry, obstructed the energy transit…

www.sciencedirect.com

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n+1 @nplusonemag.com · 4d

“Overshoot ideology came packaged in a peculiarly Californian business ethos in which unhinged entrepreneurialism was elevated to a cultural form.” New online: Wim Carton and Andreas Malm on recent experiments in geoengineering.
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

Overshooters | Wim Carton and Andreas Malm

It was not the underprivileged who took the initiative. It was one Luke Iseman, merchant of hardware and software, founder of multiple companies, former director of a “tech incubator,” builder of art ...

www.nplusonemag.com

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Grist @grist.org · 10d

So many climate solutions, so few emissions reductions. A new book explains why.

In The Long Heat, Wim Carton and Andreas Malm argue that capitalism has turned the climate crisis into a business opportunity.

grist.org/culture/clim...

#BookSky #Climate #Capitalism #Business #Tech #Politics

So many climate solutions, so few emissions reductions. A new book explains why.

In The Long Heat, Wim Carton and Andreas Malm argue that capitalism has turned the climate crisis into a business opportunity.

grist.org

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NTEU @nteunion.bsky.social · 4d

Take part in a groundbreaking workplace psychosocial safety census of all university staff in Australia, run by Pyschosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory. This an independent survey from University management and only open to staff.

Start here: nteu.info/census (takes 5-6min)

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 17d

🚨 Conference Announcement 🚨

The Land Question
October 30-31, 2025
Grimm Zentrum, HU Berlin

Full Program + Abstracts now online. 2 days, 30 scholars, 8 panels. No registration required. Keynotes by Omar Dahbour and Isabel Feichtner. Come!

criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-la...

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NTEU @nteunion.bsky.social · 9d

MUA member Hamish Paterson has been sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla that has reportedly been intercepted by Israeli forces. NTEU’s National Council members express our strong solidarity with all the courageous activists.

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Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 9d

At least six vessels in Sumud Flotilla unlawfully intercepted by Israel - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/least-six-vessels-sumud-flotilla-unlawfully-intercepted-israel

At least six vessels in Sumud Flotilla unlawfully intercepted by Israel

<article data-history-node-id="429511" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/least-six-vessels-sumud-flotilla-unlawfully-intercepted-israel" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/least-six-vessels-sumud-flotilla-unlawfully-intercepted-israel" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">At least six vessels in Sumud Flotilla unlawfully intercepted by Israel</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>At least six vessels of the Sumud Flotilla have been unlawfully intercepted by Israel, Middle East Eye can confirm. </p> <p>The vessels include the Deir Yassine, Huga, Spectre, Adara, Alma, and Sirius. </p> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · 10d

doi.org/10.1080/0969...

SPECIES-BEING AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

What is it to take ourselves as natural? This paper clarifies this question by drawing on resources from Marx and from some contemporary naturalist and humanist philosophy. I argue that for Marx ou...

doi.org

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · 10d

I’ve an article out in Angelaki this week. It reconstructs Marx’s notion of species-being in light of contemporary naturalism. It argues his thought differs from McDowell et al as he thinks achieving naturalism is a practical task requiring social revolution. It’s open access - link below!

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Chris Shambaugh @hylomorphic.bsky.social · 13d

My new article, “Marx’s Concept of Life,” is now out in EJP.

Marx's Concept of Life

This essay aims to reveal the conceptual unity of an ensemble of concepts of organic, animal, and anthropological life articulated by the young Karl Marx between 1842 and 1844. To lay the groundwork ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · 12d

heading to Berlin next week for a fellowship at the @cpkp.bsky.social. Looking forward to connecting with other scholars working across intellectual divides in philosophy!

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Stephanie Convery @gingerandhoney.bsky.social · 19d

I "made" @birdmichael.bsky.social come to the Western Treatment Plant with me on a workday to look for brolgas and orange-bellied parrots so I could write this article

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 20d

‘A mythical place’: how a Melbourne sewage farm became a haven for 300 species of birds

The abundance of birdlife amid the grassy plains, marshlands and 200 lagoons of the Western Treatment Plant rivals Kakadu – and is a magnet for birdwatchers * Australian bird of the year 2025: nominate your favourite now In a gully between the dirt road and a field of softly waving grass, a brolga stands, straightens its elegant grey neck and gazes at the two four-wheel-drives crawling to a halt a short distance away. In the centre of a lagoon on the other side of the road, a second brolga sits atop a tiny island, its orange head bowed. Brolgas are common in northern Australia but are endangered in Victoria. One of the most reliable places to see them, though, is here: in the wide grassy plains, ponds and marshlands of Melbourne’s largest sewage farm, the Western Treatment Plant. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Brooklyn Institute @brooklyninstitute.bsky.social · 21d

Faculty Writing | @alybatt in @nplusonemag with an excerpt from her new book, Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature | buff.ly/GWjl851

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Francis Markham @francismarkham.bsky.social · Sep 7

Australian universities are in a governance crisis. VC pay blowouts, scandals, mission drift — these aren’t random, they’re structural.

This new working paper with @marijataflaga.bsky.social & Keith Dowding digs into why the system is broken, and how to fix it.

doi.org/10.25911/MWW...

A thread:

Neither corporate nor government: Why university governance needs to be different, and better
Marija Taflaga, Francis Markham and Keith Dowding.

Preprint, 29 August 2025. https://doi.org/10.25911/MWW4-9781

Abstract
Australian universities face a governance crisis rooted in failures of accountability. Unlike parliaments and corporate boards, university councils lack effective mechanisms for principals to discipline agents. In parliaments, voters can replace elected representatives; in corporations, shareholders can vote out directors. Both systems close the delegation–accountability loop, ensuring alignment between principals and outcomes. University councils, however, are self-perpetuating bodies dominated by external appointees, and in recent decades they are typically from corporate backgrounds. As neither producers nor consumers of universities’ core product—knowledge creation and dissemination—they have minimal intrinsic stake in academic outcomes leaving councils detached from the university’s core mission. This misalignment fosters mission drift, weakens oversight, and contributes to repeated scandals. Because councils largely appoint their own successors, they remain insulated from meaningful scrutiny, unlike boards or parliaments where underperformance is sanctioned externally. Restoring accountability requires giving academic staff and students a renewed oversight role, alongside clear safeguards for the public interest. Because academics and students are both producers and consumers of knowledge, they have a direct and enduring stake in its quality. We recommend two mechanisms to do this are:
1. Academic Senates empowered to appoint and review council members, ensuring councils reflect the university’s purpose.
2. Robust Committee Systems that embed staff and student voices in decision-making, reduce information asymmetries, and align incentives with academic purposes.

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Jonathan Green @greenj.bsky.social · Sep 4

The little Meanjin collection that I helped bring into the world as editor. Just a fragment of its 85-year catalogue. What an act of bone-stupid arrogance to kill it.

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Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · Sep 3

excited to see this essay out in the RRPE Special Issue on Climate and Change I am co-editing with some other great scholars. This essay in particular, on the calculation debate and climate change, is super interesting. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Mathew Abbott @mathewabbott.bsky.social · Sep 5

Cora Diamond on Marx

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NTEU Victoria @nteuvictoria.bsky.social · Aug 31

Workers Rally for #Palestine: 1pm, State Library, Weds 10 Sept.
Last week hundreds of NTEU members joined thousands of fellow unionists at Trades Hall who then joined tens of thousands of Victorians to demand an end to the genocide in #Gaza.
Let's keep the momentum going!

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Historical Materialism Journal @histmat.bsky.social · Aug 22

In case you missed it, you can now catch @kathunfeld.bsky.social and Andreas Malm discussing *Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature* with author Alyssa Battistoni on the Historical Materialism YouTube channel.

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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · Aug 27

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

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